Do You Know the Muffin Man
by HecateA
Summary: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, even when it's not the only one. Oneshot. Written for the PJO ship weeks- Friendship Week!


**Nobody's told my math teacher that the PJO Ship Weeks is nearing its climax and that I _can't be factorising imaginary numbers right now Mme I have things to do. _So guess what I've been doing recently? Yeah... Thus why I'm running behind on Ship Weeks so much, I'm sorry. But my education really does come first... Luckily a friend and I were bouncing headcanons and this little tidbit came out, thus replacing a dull and borderline romantic Jeyna bromance fic that flopped. I hope that you enjoy the Friendship Ship Week story!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the PJO series or its characters.**

**PS- I got a lot of requests for this week. They've all been noted somewhere or other, so even if you didn't ask for Piper+Annabeth I may get around to them. **

* * *

**Do You Know the Muffin Man**

* * *

There were a few things that Piper was sure she could have learned about Annabeth in an easier way.

She could have been warned that you _did not _touch Annabeth's stuff whether it was books spread on a table, blueprints rolled out, or blankets folded at the foot of her bunk. Someone could have mentioned that Annabeth wasn't actually mad at you when her grey eyes pierced into your soul, sometimes she just forgot to soften her naturally aggressive gaze. And what would have _also _been great to know was that Annabeth never _looked _stressed, she just stopped eating when she was nervous.

It took a while for Piper to catch on why Annabeth always skipped meals instead of campfires to work on something for the ship, or why Malcolm was leaving granola bars all over Annabeth's bed and calling it 'subliminal messaging'. Heck, Piper had even noticed that Annabeth stole her breakfast less when they were working on mapping out Roman traditions together, or if she did she'd only take a tiny bite- more of a statement than a snack. The final straw was when she shooed Piper away from the workshop and told her to go have supper, and one of her sisters said 'from the horse's mouth' while another snorted so loudly she could have given herself whiplash.

She cornered John, an easily freaked out twelve year old son of Athena, about it.

"Well I heard Malcolm bitching about making sure Annabeth gets enough protein and iron or something," he said. "I think it's true. She hasn't been at meals recently. And you know at campfires?"

"Yeah?" Piper said.

"Sometimes," he said, lowering his voice as if he was about to whisper a filthy, dark secret, "she doesn't even take a marshmallow from the bag. She just _passes it on."_

"Oh no," Piper said sympathetically. "Well, thanks John."

He asked for Lacy's number in exchange, but she told him to go ask her himself.

The next day, when she grabbed breakfast from the continental breakfast that the Demeter kids set up at sunrise to cater to the children of Hephaestus without inconveniencing the nymphs (as children of Demeter did), Katie Gardner smiled at Piper and started spreading cream cheese on a bagel at the sight of her- her usual breakfast.

"No thank you Kates," Piper said. "Can I get a muffin today?"

"Sure thing," Katie said. She gave Piper a spunky smile. "Feeling in the mood to mix things up a bit, yeah? What kind would you like? Banana nut? Oatmeal chocolate chip? Good old blueberry? We have these real interesting zucchini ones that Miranda just pulled a fresh batch out of the oven…"

"Carrot, please," Piper said.

Katie arched an eyebrow and said the most motherly and nurturing thing ever; "I thought I remembered you saying that you didn't like those? Or was that Jason?"

"No, no, it was me. And yeah, well, you know," Piper said. "Hormones."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Katie said sweetly, pouting.

She insisted that Piper take a travel mug of hot chocolate with her too if that was the case, and mentioned that she had a stash of chocolate and sappy movies if Piper needed it. She was literally the sweetest girl.

Piper strolled into the forge, proudly carrying her carrot muffin.

"Good morning," she greeted the children of Hephaestus with. She didn't know how many of them actually heard or registered her, but she always felt weird when she didn't say it. Leo, Jason, and Annabeth were leaning over a blueprint, so Piper went to join them.

"Look, I'm just saying- if you're worried about time, we can cut it," Annabeth said. "That's not on the top of the priority list, as far as features go it's more of a-"

"Morning," she said cheerfully. Leo looked at her with a stink eye like 'no morning is a good morning and you have no idea how far behind on this project we are even though the hull is very nearly complete and the engine is coming along great and the main mast is nearly finished too and most portholes have a glass pane installed too and technically according to the paper plan we're not really late at all'. He was a grumpy one, this Valdez of hers.

"Morning," Annabeth said casually, leaning over and pulling off a piece of the muffin top. She swallowed. "Carrot?"

Before Piper could nod, she'd reached for the rest of the top.

_Perfect._

* * *

So for the next few days, Piper politely declined the bagels (_even _the ones with raisins in them) and asked for a carrot muffin, which Katie Gardner served with hot chocolate. After the third day, Piper also took the bagel because she was starting to get hungry, but the carrot muffin was a staple of Piper's breakfast order for the next little while.

"Piper you hate carrot muffins," Annabeth frowned after the fifth day of this maneuver, when she'd just gobbled up most of Piper's muffin by taking bites here and there, as Piper followed her around all morning specifically for that reason. She'd even helped herself to some hot chocolate! Turned out that she loved the stuff way, _way _more than Piper ever had. _  
_

"Sure do," Piper said. _And I hate them even more on a full stomach!_

Annabeth's eyes narrowed. "So why do you..?"

"Because you always steal my breakfast," Piper said. "So I figured if it's something you like, you'll steal more of it. I've gotta get some food into you _somehow." _

Annabeth had, in fact, eaten five entire muffins to herself in the last five days without realising it. Piper had even gotten her to take a bite from a banana, which had been pretty startling in itself.

Annabeth smiled when she said that. "That's actually… funny."

"It's not funny," Piper said. "You have to eat. Like, a full meal purely to yourself. And preferably you'd do that three times a day."

"I didn't mean 'funny' as in laughing funny. More funny as in… quirky?" Annabeth said.

"Super. You know what else is quirky? _Not eating."_

"Yes, yes, I know."

"Then _don't do it," _Piper said. "I know you're nervous, but you know who you're helping by not eating? Nobody. Percy would want you to eat, I'm sure of it. At least I do, and I know that we both care about you a lot so I'm sure we have that in common. Capiche?"

Annabeth smiled sadly. Maybe it had been a low move to bring Percy in, but Piper was desperate. She had to get more food into Annabeth. Friends made sure that friends didn't accidentally starve themselves because they were worrying about godly wars and civilisation clashes and kidnapped significant others.

"Let's go see my New Favourite Person Katie Gardner right now and get this sorted out."

And so she marched Annabeth right out of the forge and towards a world of better nutrition.

She planned on introducing her to fluids and hydration next.

* * *

**Upcoming ship weeks**

**August**

**31 - 06 **\- Jason and Reyna

**September**

**07- 13 **\- Jason and Piper

**14 -20 **\- Frank and Hazel

**21 - 27 **\- Calypso and Leo

**28 - October 4 **\- Percy and Annabeth


End file.
